Despite GPS Monitoring, Violent Felon Vanishes

DERBY — As the clock ticked away toward adjournment in Superior Court Wednesday, prosecutors faced the troubling realization that Dardian Celaj would — again — be a no-show.

It was the second time in less than a week that the convicted felon, free on bond while awaiting sentencing in a Derby rape case, skipped a court appearance, this time for an unrelated violent crime Seymour police said he committed in January.

Celaj was supposed to be monitored round-the-clock with an electronic device until being sentenced in Superior Court in Milford on Aug. 1 for raping a 22-year-old woman who worked at his former Derby nightclub.

But the court-ordered safeguards were not enough to ensure Celaj would appear in court. Now, the 36-year-old — who federal prosecutors charged took part years ago in violent home invasions that authorities said were tied to New York's Genovese crime family — is missing.

State judicial officials did not provide answers late last week as to how they lost track of Celaj or details of how the court-ordered monitoring was being handled. Late Saturday, authorities continued to search for Celaj.

Celaj's lawyer, Stephan E. Seeger, said he had been in contact with Celaj before the Aug. 1 sentencing date but has not heard from him since.

“I fully expected him to be there,” Seeger said.

Prosecutor Kevin Lawlor declined to comment on authorities' search for Celaj but said he hoped Celaj would soon be back in police custody.

“Based on the serious allegations that he pled guilty to in this case along with what he has been previously convicted of, he is a very violent individual,” Lawlor said.

Celajwas scheduled to be sentenced in state court on Aug. 1 for the March 2012 rape of one of his employees at his former Derby nightclub, Club Europa. He had been freed soon after his arrest after posting a $250,000 bond.

Prosecutors said the woman was sexually assaulted after the club closed on March 2, 2012. The woman told Derby police she was by herself cleaning the club at about 4:30 a.m. when Celaj showed up.

The two engaged in “consensual kissing” that “turned violent and physical,” State's Attorney Kevin Lawlor said, according to a transcript of an April 22 hearing in which Celaj took a plea deal shortly after the case went to trial.

Lawlor said Celaj pulled the victim by her hair and sexually assaulted her “for some time” while she “was begging, pleading for him to stop.”

The victim escaped after Celaj, who was drunk, passed out.

Celaj pleaded guilty to a charge of first-degree sexual assault in the middle of the victim's testimony at trial. He entered the plea under the Alford doctrine, meaning he did not admit guilt but conceded there was probably enough evidence to convict him at trial. He faced up to eight years in prison.

Judge Frank A. Iannotti warned Celaj that the plea agreement would be withdrawn if he failed to show up at the sentencing.

“When you are picked up on a failure to appear, I would be free to sentence you up to the maximum of 20 years in prison with a two-year mandatory minimum, sir. Do you understand that?” Iannotti asked.

“Yes,” Celaj replied.

Iannotti ordered Celaj to wear an electronic GPS locater so authorities could keep track of his whereabouts for 24 hours, seven days a week. Celaj's lawyer at the time, Donald J. Cretella Jr., objected, saying Celaj did not need any monitoring since he had showed up for regular court hearings in the past and had a regular job working for his family's Brookfield construction business.

“That's before he pleaded guilty,” Iannotti said. “I'll be perfectly honest with you, Mr. Cretella, I have some serious concerns about his being here at the time.”

Celaj, an Albanian national, told Iannotti — under oath — that he did not have a passport. Iannotti was skeptical.

“I suppose I have to take him at his word, but I have a difficult time understanding how he could not,” Iannotti said.

When Celaj failed to show up for the Aug. 1 sentencing, Iannotti issued a re-arrest order for him, according to a transcript of the court hearing.

The $250,000 bond was forfeited and Iannotti set bail at $1 million, cash only, the transcript said.

Celaj was supposed to appear Wednesday in Superior Court in Derby where he faces charges of breach of peace, burglary and criminal mischief in connection with a Jan. 30 incident at the Seymour home of a 37-year-old woman he was dating, according to court records.

According to Seymour police, Celaj went to the woman's apartment but she did not want to see or speak to him. Celaj then tried to get inside the apartment by pushing “down a glass slider door,” police said.

The woman told police Celaj became “verbally violent” so she “left out of fear” as Celaj “destroyed items throughout the apartment,” police said.

Celaj was released from custody after posting $5,000 bail. A judge issued a protective order barring Celaj from having any contact with the woman and banning him from her home.

In court on Wednesday, prosecutors called Celaj's name but there was no response. Judge Peter L. Brown issued a second failure-to-appear warrant for Celaj.

Seeger said he has tried to call Celaj but his messages have not been returned.

“It was his intention to be there,” Seeger said about the sentencing.

Seeger questioned authorities' characterization of Celaj as someone who once worked for the mob and said, in a motion to modify conditions of his release filed before Celaj went missing, that disclosure of these past crimes could harm his client's safety.

In the motion, Celaj asked the judge to allow him to stay at different locations instead of residing solely at his Shelton apartment.

“Since the date of his guilty plea, information has been made public that may compromise Mr. Celaj's safety” and residing in one place further put him in danger, the motion said.

The judge agreed to the modification, ordering that Celaj still be monitored by GPS tracking 24 hours a day, seven days a week at “finite” locations “preapproved by probation.”

At Celaj's no-show, Seeger asked that Celaj be placed in segregated prison housing once authorities took him into custody.

Celaj was sentenced in federal court in 2011 to time served after pleading guilty to robbery and firearms charges. A grand jury indictment handed down in the Southern District of New York charged Celaj with committing armed home invasions in Orange County, N.Y., and Morris County, N.J.

According to the 2007 indictment, Celaj and other men were hired by the reputed mob family to break into the homes of wealthy residents and steal money and valuables. In the New Jersey home invasion, the men broke into the victim's home and tied up the victim, the victim's wife and the victim's housekeeper. The victim was pistol-whipped before the men escaped with “several hundred thousand dollars” worth of cash, collectible coins, jewelry and guns, according to a Sept. 17, 2008, press release from federal prosecutors in New York.

A portion of the proceeds was given to Genovese family captain, or “capo,” Angelo Prisco as a “tribute,” the press release said.

Seeger, who took over Celaj's rape case after the plea deal was struck, said that Celaj's convictions in federal court “have nothing to do with the current charges” and that he is unsure why they were brought up by state prosecutors.

“It is irresponsible to propagate rumors or facts that are not necessarily true,” Seeger said.

Lawlor, the prosecutor, disagreed. He said Celaj cooperated with the U.S. government's investigation of the Genovese-tied break-ins, testified at trial about his organized crime ties and pleaded guilty to six counts, getting a prison sentence of time served.

Witnesses at the rape trial testified that Celaj had bragged about mob connections to people at his nightclub, Lawlor said.

Michael Willard, the bondsman who got Celaj out of jail, said Celaj sent him a message two days before the Aug. 1 sentencing date saying he would be calling him. Celaj still owed him money but Willard said did not think he would skip the hearing since Celaj had previously attended all of his hearings.

Willard said Celaj never called. Now, he said he has to track down the fugitive if he wants to get his money back.

“This guy has the money to run and go wherever he wants to,” Willard said.